aka: Mahouka Koukou No Rettousei

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"Magic" is a product of neither legends nor fairy tales. It has become a technology of reality for nearly a century. Various countries in the world are locked in a race in nurturing "Magicians".

Tatsuya Shiba is a reserve student without magic capability at First High School, a magic high school, along with his sister Miyuki, who happens to be the top student among the freshmen. What will happen to him, and how will he live his school life where he is one of the many reserves in the school looked down upon by the chosen magical students?

Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (The Irregularnote Or, more literally, "Underperformer" at Magic High School) is a Japanese light novel series written by Satou Tsutomu with illustration by Ishida Kana. The novel began as a web novel serialization in "Let's Become a Novelist" on October 12, 2008. It then became the second web novel after Sword Art Online to be commercialized and published by Dengeki in July 2011.

The web novel consisted of only 6 web chapters written covering the First Year arc completed on March 21, 2011, and the author has already planned for a total of 15 web chapters to cover the entire three years of Magic High School. Included also is a series of side stories, Mahouka Koukou no Shounen Shoujo (loosely, The Boys and Girls at Magic High School).

It has been adapted into a manga by Hayashi Fumino with Kitaumi Tsuna as the artist. The light novel is published by ASCII Media Works in Dengeki Bunko while the manga is published by Square Enix in GFantasy.

A manga spin-off focusing on Miyuki, Mahouka Koukou no Yuutousei (The Honour Student at Magic High School), began serialize in Dengeki Daioh July issue on April 26, 2012 with Mori Yu as the artist.

An anime adaptation by Madhouse began airing in the Spring 2014 Anime season. Yen Press has announced they plan to localize the light novels in Fall 2015.

Provides examples of:

Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Their only real limitation is that they can't recruit course 2 students. Played straight after the student council president election, when this limitation is removed as Mayumi's final act as president.

The Ace: Miyuki and Tatsuya to damn near everyone who isn't already an experienced, certified badass.

Badass Bookworm: Tatsuya, despite being his badass self, got the top score on First High's written exam, has an extremely large knowledge of pretty much everything, and he's always looking into things. Miyuki even finds him digging into information on the so-called Philosopher's Stone. His skills immediately get him asked to join the Thesis Competition (bookworm competition) when he hadn't even applied.

Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Start of anime episode 20, flirtatious Mayumi keeps Tatsuya company for a talk in archives cubicle and gets more or less honestly dejected by him not making any move on that front. Cue loads of blush and fluster when Tatsuya promises all the difference should her offer ever come in a place not watched by security cameras.

Badass Family: In Japan exists the "Numbers": families who bear the character for a number in their name. They're ancient clans of magicians who specialize in various forms of magic, and were rewarded with a name and with recognition for their success. To wit, there's two strata of these "Numbers":

The first Twenty Eight Families, whose surname contains a number from one to ten. They are the greatest results of the human experiments carried out in the ten most advanced and important magic research institutes, which is from where their number comes from. Every so many years, ten of those families are chosen by committee to represent all families, and those ten are known for a period of time as the Ten Master Clans. It's normal for some numbers to be missing or for numbers to repeat; the current set of clans already in place at the start of the series is the first time all numbers have been represented in the Ten Master Clans.

Each of the Ten Master Clans is an example, but one of the two strongest is the Yotsuba clan. It has one of the strongest magicians in the world, Yotsuba Maya, and Miyuki. Tatsuya, being her brother and bodyguard, counts too. His case is a bit muddier though. note Tatsuya is a Yotsuba by blood, but he doesn't think of himself as part of the clan, and nor does most of the clan. This is because Tatsuya was originally unable to use true magic. (Which turned out to be a rather arbitrary standard that was obviously wrong, especially in Tatsuya's case.) His family rejected him for this reason and many think of him as a fake magician.

The other numbers are the Hundred Families—families who bear numbers greater than ten. Their skills and abilities are generally no match for accomplished members of the Twenty Eight Families, but their lineage and those trained by them are still superior to most magicians from outside the Numbers.

The number has absolutely no relevance to power level—clans with the first number, like Ichijou, are not the strongest clan (that would be the Yotsuba), just like clans with the character for one thousand are not stronger than one with the character for one hundred.

The Baroness: Maya Yotsuba, Tatsuya and Miyuki's aunt, the devilish current head of the Yotsuba family with her finger on the pulse of the world but quietly sips tea.

Beach Episode: During summer break. It didn't make it into the anime, likely due to time constraints, but generally, the only thing non-readers of the Light Novel missed out on, aside from the obvious Fanservice, is Honoka's Love Confession to Tatsuya and the subsequent rejection.

BFS: Some of the Chiba family's secret techniques require these for their best performance. note A shining example is Orochimaru, which was made specifically so Erika, the only member who can actually use the secret technique Yamatsunami ("Landslide"), could bring out the technique's full power to bear.

Big Brother Instinct: If you intend to harm or post a threat to Miyuki, Tatsuya will turn you and anyone who with you into brief wisps of blue flame. If you actually manage to harm Miyuki in any way, Tatsuya's Unstoppable Rage will make the Earth itself pray for its continued survival. This once happened before when Miyuki was shot during the Great Asian Alliance's invasion attempt at Okinawa. The aftermath left the entire Alliance unable to speak the name they gave him - "Mahesvara".

Big Brother Worship: Miyuki worships Tatsuya incredibly much. She even refers to him as "oniisama".

Big Screwed-Up Family: The Yotsuba clan. They are extremely wealthy and incredibly powerful. They are known for being prone to going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against anyone who crosses their family, which earned the entire family the nickname "The Untouchables". note This behavior is noted because of the incident known as "The Nightmare of 2063", where the current head of the clan, Yotsuba Maya, was kidnapped by the Dahan government in order to experiment on her and produce strong magicians. Among other things, they devastated her...in many ways. The subsequent rampage resulted in the deaths of several Yotsuba clansmen. However, Dahan as a country collapsed due to the sheer number of casualties, "mysterious disappearances", assassinations, and murders, and after floundering and struggling, was reannexed into the Great Asian Alliance.

Brother-Sister Incest: Heavy Incest Subtext. Miyuki is serious about her complete desire for Tatsuya. It's often lampshaded by those around them and they even play with it for fun at times. It becomes reality in Volume 16, with their engagement. But it's still a one-sided relationship as Tatsuya only has brotherly love for Miyuki..note Given Tatsuya's emotions have been nearly wiped and the only true feelings he has left are his love and care for Miyuki, this may be Enforced.

Child Soldier: Tatsuya joined the 101st Battalion since he was 13. His training started at a very early age and included fighting animals. He fought and killed an 30 year old man when he was just 6 years old!

Lina, too.

Cool Guns: "Silver Horn"note Dual wielded by Tatsuya. Optimized for his general use, these two are Tatsuya's main CADs, "Trident"note So named because its three activation sequences are purely optimized for the sole purpose of using Decomposition. In other words, Tatsuya will only use this CAD knowing he'll walk into a battle to the death. and "Third Eye"note An experimental sniper-shaped CAD with a superior targeting system and visual augmentation than most CADs. It's sole use is facilitate Tatsuya's use of Material Burst on targets at long-range. Because of its purpose, never mind Tatsuya, the CAD itself is normally sealed away. Basically, if Tatsuya is actually deployed with "Third Eye", it's because things have gone ten different ways to hell, and something or someone needs to die right now, in the most violently explosive way possible. , gun-shaped Specialized CADs that Tatsuya uses.

Tatsuya defeats Vice President Hattori in less than 5 seconds during their first battle. Made somewhat ironic by how the latter planned to use speed abilities to gain the upper hand, and stating that whoever attacks first is pretty much the winner.

Miyuki during the mirage bat event in her 1st 9-school competition, where she completely dominates her competitors (extra points for Miyuki being a junior competing in the senior event). Even after Tatsuya was asked to submit her CAD due to the complaint from other schools, after which the committee decided to leak the code to the other schools allowing them to copy the flying technique Miyuki used, she still completely floors them due to their inexperience with using said spell. What makes it golden is that she ALREADY was the number 1 player even before she decides to crush those players' pride into oblivion with the Flying spell.

Tatsuya basically single-handedly curb stomped the Great Asian Alliance army that invaded Okinawa three years before the start of the series after some of the soldiers allied with them shot Miyuki. He had the 101st with him, but he was so enraged that he practically decomposed everything before it could touch him or before his allies could shoot it, all while restoring any allies that fell in battle. He concluded the affairs by field-experimenting his new shiny magic theory - the "Material Burst" for the first time and proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that, regardless of the Yotsubas' beliefs regarding his ability as a magician, he was stronger than all of them and the only reason he didn't even bother to correct them was because he only cared about Miyuki.

Dangerous Forbidden Technique: "Regrowth". It allows its user to reverse any injury that has occurred within the past 24 hours, in exchange for experiencing all the previous pain that injury caused in a fraction of second.

Disintegrator Ray: Decomposition magic, which is Dispersal-type magic that breaks down matter to the molecular level. Magic that works on the information body and the physical plane to this degree is possible in theory, but is actually impossible for anyone to perform due to the extreme requirements in calculation ability it would demand from the magician—one would have to have been born with the specific ability to use Decomposition at the expense of practically everything else. It just so happens that this is the case for Tatsuya—it's his ability to use "Decomposition" and its counterpart magic "Regrowth" that renders him unable to properly wield magic like other magicians do; the magics are so stupidly complex and difficult to perform that it's only with the addition of an artificial magic calculation zone that he can barely wield "proper" magic.

End of an Age: The narration makes clear that the events of "Bloody Halloween" signify the turning point in history where nations acknowledge that the power of Strategic Class Magicians has surpassed that of conventional WM Ds. A new arms race appears to be brewing with magicians increasingly being seen as weapons rather than soliders or even people.

Everyone Can See It: The Incest Subtext between Tatsuya and Miyuki is so damn obvious it might as well be text. However, Miyuki only makes jokes about it for the most part and Tatsuya literally cannot feel anything but brotherly love towards Miyuki.

Evolving Credits: In episode 19, after Erika ties part of her hair back, the ending reflects this new hairstyle when she's shown in the credits.

Fantastic Nuke: The magical equivalent of these are the Strategic-Class Magicians. They are People Of Mass Destruction who have the ability to cast a specific magic with extremely destructive capabilities—enough to serve as deterrents against war and/or invasion towards other nations. Examples include Angelina Sirius' "Heavy Metal Burst" note Which breaks down metals into a super-condensed, continuous and malleable stream of plasma, Itsuwa Mio's "Abyss" note Which manipulates bodies of water in order to generate a localized whirlpool capable of extending up to several kilometers in radius—essentially creating a gaping abyss on the sea. This may also be used on underground bodies of water to directly affect the earth above, provided prior knowledge of the body of water and its exact coordinates are known. and Tasuya's "Material Burst" note Which takes the target's mass and converts it to energy according to Einstein's E = mc^2 formula. The resulting emission of enery—that is, a GINORMOUS explosion—-utterly destroys everything in range. Its target can be anything. Anything at all. Something as minor as a 50 mg water droplet on the outer hull of a ship thousands of miles away was enough to destroy it and devastate much of the surrounding terrain, as well as create tsunami aftershocks. Since we haven't been told the limits of its capabilities, we may assume that Tatsuya could potentially DESTROY THE WORLD at a whim if he actually cared enough to do it.

Fantastic Racism: The course 1 students in general view the course 2 students with a lot of contempt, and feel they're leagues above the latter group. While 1's are generally considered pretty powerful, Tatsuya is considered a 2, yet manages to defeat the Vice President in the blink of an eye during a mock battle.

Fantastic Slurs: The course 2 reserve students are referred to as "Weeds" by some course 1 students. As it turns out, the only real difference was a mistake in their uniforms when the school doubled in size and they didn't change them.

Foregone Conclusion: Vice President Hattori feels his mock battle with Tatsuya is going to be this, with him defeating the lowly course 2 student and putting that guy in his place. Then he gets knocked out by the latter in less than a second after the battle starts...

For Science!: Yotsuba as well other Master Clans. And Tatsuya. Seriously, beside Miyuki, all this guy ever thinks about is how to make new applications of magic and invent new magics while he's at it. Just read 9-school competition arc for more details. Which is hilariously lampshaded when Erica notes he'd be a great Mad Scientist.

Four Is Death: The Fourth Institute of Magician Development was the Institute least concerned with human life and magician's rights. By extension, the Yotsuba family, who ran the institute and have the number four in their name.

Guinea Pig Family: Every single Master Clans is a former national research labatory about magic and genetic... For an example, Tatsuya's mother and aunt experimented on him to see if they could make him into an "artificial magician". It had the unintended side effect of removing his "strong" emotions, except for "sibling love". It worked... but not very well.

Gone Horribly Right: in volume 16, it is revealed that the Yotsuba wished a person who can protect them while Miya wished for a person who can destroy the world to avenge her sister. See Be Careful What You Wish For on Tatsuya's character sheet for details.

Hair Decorations: Miyuki has them in the shape of snowflakes. Given to her by her brother.

Hand Behind Head: Done by Kirihara, when along with Sayaka Mibu they're released from hospital and Sayaka gets lead-on to basically confess her romantic feelings for him by Erika, at the end of "Freshman" arc.

How Course 1 students typically view Course 2 students. They even label them as "weeds", while considering themselves "blooms". In the anime a lot of Course 1 students openly display scorn and contempt when they see Course 2 students around, and can't figure out why Miyuki, a "bloom", wants to hang out with those lowly "weeds" such as Tatsuya.

Erika and Leo instantly dislike each other when they're first introduced. They nearly get into a fight until the bell rings and others ask them to back down.

Hidden Depths: Everyone. If you have a name, you have your own goals and agenda.

I Am Not Left-Handed: At the beginning of the novel, Tatsuya was shown as a badass who could read the Activation Sequence of magic (thus allowing him to counter them) and use multiple CADs to fight. These abilities are amazing in-universe, yes, but nowhere near as powerful as what he's concealing.

An Ice Person: Miyuki specializes in cooling magicnote Specifically, according to the series' modern magic categorization system, Miyuki specializes in Speed-type magic, which is magic that acts upon the speed vectors of molecules—which logically means she should also be proficient at setting things on fire by speeding up particle velocity and collision, as demonstrated by her mastery of Inferno, which displays both sides of the Speed-type magic that Miyuki specializes in.. Her cooling magic, however, is a physical manifestation of her natural mind-affecting magic. Her most powerful magic, "Cocytus", freezes the consciousness of its target. Not the target's neurons, mind—their soul. It could be considered a Fate Worse Than Death.

Loads and Loads of Characters: There are quite a few named characters just attending First High School. And then there are the students at the other magic schools...

Loophole Abuse: Miyuki insists that Tatsuya be brought onboard on the student council as well when she's offered a spot. However, she's told that there's a rule that Course 2 students aren't able to join the student council unless the entire student body votes for that. Which considering how Course 1 students view Course 2 students with a lot of contempt, isn't likely to happen. However, Mari states that there's no rule that a Course 2 couldn't be appointed to the disciplinary group, and asks that he join. Even Mayumi thought that was a nice loophole they should exploit.

Lost in Translation: Each of "Numbers" badass families' name starts with a kanji of a number. "Shi" is both the reading of "Director" kanji in Shiba, and an alternative reading of Japanese kanji for "Four" in "Yotsuba". Knowing that much provides a solid mnemonic to Shiba siblings' situation — they're removed, but not very far, from the Yotsuba family. It's too far-fetched all right for villains investigating the siblings at one point in story to consider.

Honoka to Tatsuya. Tatsuya turned her down sincerely because he can't return her love with the lack of nearly all "strong" emotions (strong emotions only, not all emotions). May also qualify as All Love Is Unrequited as she says she'll like him until she finds someone better.

Miyuki to Tatsuya later on in Volume 16

Mad Scientist: His friends and acquaintances do view Tatsuya as one from time to time. Creating new weapons "for fun" and designing new magic sequences out of boredom probably helped. Probably not because when he was 13, he first field-experimented his new magic theory - Material Burst and as the result, thousands of armed troops vaporized, right?

Magical Accessory: The CAD (Casting Assistant Device).note Also known as Device, Assistance, Houki. They vary greatly and exist in two types: general purpose and specialized. Activated in order to cast incantations and charms, mudrā, magic spells; an alternative to the traditional techniques and means found in magic textbooks, it's an essential device required in order to master modern day magic. Activation ritual speed, and amount of information deploy-able, is decided by the CAD's hard disk ability; just how much the refinement and effectiveness of activation can be expanded by is dependent on the performance of the software built into the CAD. Even an inferior performance CAD, by simplifying the activation ritual, can increase the power of the magic processing section, but that is a high level skill and in general, the processing power of the CAD is the primary constraint on how fast magic can be activated. The general purpose CAD places emphasis on diversity; regardless of the combination of systems it can install up to 99 kinds of activation rituals. The bracelet form is the most widely used, but mobile computer type ones are also in circulation, and they are preferred by senior magic masters who dislike having both hands occupied while operating. Specialized CADs emphasizes speed at the expense of diversity, and aiming support integrated subsystems are mainstream. The specialized type allows activation sequences for 9 different rituals of similar archetype to be stored. They often take the form of handguns and rifles. In the barrel where ammunition would normally go auxiliary sighting systems are incorporated, and CADs with extended "barrels" have had their auxiliary sighting function enhanced. The one possessed by Tatsuya Shiba, a tuned up Silver Horn model "Trident", is one of these.

Magitek: And Tatsuya is a world-renowned pioneer under the alias of Taurus Silver.

'Miyuki' means 'deep snow'. She specializes in magics that involve creating ice and freezing things. Although it is only her derived power.

'Tatsuya' means 'master' but can be written to mean 'dragon'. His JSDF codename, Ogura Ryuuya, means "Great Black Dragon". Wonder where they got that...

Meganekko: Mizuki Shibata wears them to reduce her power to tolerable levels. note Due to magic, wearing glasses is rare. It's hinted that those wearing them mostly do so for the same reason Mizuki does.

"Mahesvara": Given by soldiers of the Great Asian Alliance after the Okinawa incident. Refers to the Hindu deity Shiva said to be the god of destruction and reforming. Novel Quotes "Three years ago, an unidentified demon smashed them at Okinawa. Among the soldiers who returned through prisoner exchange, none dared to utter that title ("Mahesvara"). The upper echelons of the Great Asian Alliance military officially denied his existence. They forbade the soldiers from mentioning that name. It was a nightmare better left buried. Yet, no matter how they denied him with their lips, the nightmare had become reality and was baring its fangs at them." | "Three years ago, soldiers from Hong Kong used English phrases to get around the gag order from above. Today, that term spread like wildfire through the invading forces. — Mahesvara! — Their morale drowned in a rising tide of horror."

Lu Gonghu: Better known by his nickname "The Man-Eating Tiger"., Kokonoe. He's on par with his teacher in non-magical martial arts, but his teacher still wins with Supernatural Martial Arts. Kokonoe is one of only two people thus far being able to do so.

Numerical Theme Naming: Magicians with numbers in their family name are of superior magic bloodline, they are known as "Numbers."

Person of Mass Destruction: The Strategic-Class magicians. They have all a magic equivalent to the power of a nuke. They are more than 50 but those publicly known are called the Thirteen Apostles.

Post Modern Magick: The magical system of the setting, called Modern Magic, is pretty much this, also heavily based on Platonicism with the use of words like Eidos (Idea) and Psions. However, modern magic isn't the only Functional Magic as Ancient Magic still exists, and is actually more powerful than modern magic, but takes longer to cast.

Power Incontinence: When Miyuki gets emotional, sometimes the surroundings get frozen over. Explained further in the LN: Miyuki is using 50% of her power to suppress Tatsuya's magic. The moment she releases the seal, she gains full control on her magic.

Power Trio: First High's student government has this dynamic. Diplomatic Student Council President Mayumi serves as Beauty, Mari the aggressive strategist who heads the Disciplinary Committee is the Brains and the intimidating Club Group Leader Katsuto is the Brawn.

Putting Onthe Reich: One of the students in the Pillars Break competition wears a Nazi stormtrooper outfit.

Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Erika uses connections she has in the military to get herself and some of the other characters into the hotel where Tatsuya and the other First High students are staying for the competition. She also says she has a way of getting into the party that night as well despite not being invited as a competitor in the events. Then it turns out she and the others are working as the wait and kitchen staff.

Secret Test: The patriarch of the ten families does this to the students competing in the upcoming events. Tatsuya notices that something might be off before he first appears when a young lady appears on the stage. Then when the man finally shows up, he says that he cast a wide-area, low level spell in the room, and says that only five of the students seem to have noticed it. And if he were a terrorist with ill intentions, only those five would have been able to do anything, while the rest would either get killed, or at least incapacitated. He then points out that magic is just a means, and shouldn't be used solely as an ends.

Tatsuya is the "Silver" half of the genius magic engineer known as "Taurus Silver". He's constantly tinkering, investing, theorizing, or discovering things. He was the first to make Flying Magic using Modern Magic. During the Nine Schools Competition. he created bleeding edge CADs, new magic spells, and calibrated competitor equipment so well most said it felt like they suddenly improved a lot in their magic. His long-term pet project is creating a functional magic thermonuclear reactor.

Kichijouji's moniker is "Cardinal George" due to his discover, via research, of one of the legendary Cardinal Codes thought only to exist in theory. He's Masaki's primary strategist and even Tatsuya has said "there not a single person who studies Elemental Magic sequences who doesn't know his name".

Training from Hell: Tatsuya had his strong emotions (only strong emotions, not all emotions) erased from his mind and was subject to experiments run on his body. During the Beach Episode it's told he is covered with scars, except for his head. The narrator lampshades this in volume 10, even calling what he's been through "training from hell".

Troll: Miyuki sometimes does this while Tatsuya and Mayumi do this constantly. Particularly entertaining when they spar verbally.

Trouble Entendre: After school entrance ceremony, with many of new acquaintances in the same place, Mizuki reaches a conclusion that the official top freshman Miyuki is likely related to Tatsuya. Tatsuya feeling threat of getting scrutinized for secrets at Mizuki's use of the word "aura" when describing the siblings, replies that Mizuki must have quite good eyes to see such things, startling the girl. Her eyes are later revealed to be quite special, a sought-after asset, valued gift in magic society, and not something Mizuki ever intended to flaunt.

The Un Favourite: The Shiba/Yotsuba family in regards to Miyuki and Tatsuya. Revealed in volume 16 why the family hates Tatsuya much, since he has the power to destroy the world. The true objective behind Tatsuya's operation was to remove his emotions so he doesn't destroy the world just for a tantrum.

Wish Fulfillment: The series is noted in Japan for containing a large dose of this trope, even among current trends in light novels. Our protagonist is only a poor student because the system refuses to recognize how awesome he is. In fact, he is so good at everything, it comes up that the school has nothing to teach him while he revolutionizes every subject he touches. If terrorists attack, the troops and police will be unavailable, so he will solve the problem, even if it is an entire country. All while single-handedly advancing science in multiple fields, charming girls, and proving his political views as correct.

World War III: One of the main events of the 21st century, lasting almost twenty years (2045-2064). One of the greatest consequences of it was the ascension of Magicians as a force, working to prevent any use of nuclear weapons.

Yamato Nadeshiko: See Miyuki Shiba in the page image for the visual side. And she acts like this because Tatsuya admires refined people.

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